NPI

Companies, be it global blue chip or emerging start-ups, typically see New Product Development (NPI) as the first stage in generating and commercialising new products within the overall strategic process of product life cycle management used to maintain or grow their market share

Fabrinet UK's NPI Managers and Technical Sales Managers live and breathe technology and blue sky concepts with product designers who continue to push the boundaries of realisation and conceptualising ideas, making them tangible for product launch. As we know designers play an important role in the lifecycle of the product even beyond its initial prototype and proof of concept and so having a dedicated team who fully understand NPI and when to apply it, is key at the early stages of development and production up-scaling

Prior to NPI, key understanding of the design is basically a problem solving exercise and understanding whether it's manufacturable and has tangible revenue behind it. The design of a new product consists of the following stages:

Design Brief

Conceptual Design

Product Design Specifications

Pre Build Data Review

Testing

Detail design and fix for manufacture

Manufacturing and Further Testing

Post Build Review

Refinement and Sales

The above clearly defines the concept throughout the full NPI process, Fabrinet UK’s skills, knowledge and manufacturing solutions ensures that each process and step are considered during the journey of the program. For example;

A client specialising in Femtocell development looked to launch a new router to allow wireless connectivity within a state of the art office block. The initial forecast for global sales in year one is 12,000 units with year two reaching 25,000. Key for this client is ensuring a high yield and a cost effective product so detailed analysis at design, bill of materials, test and manufacturability was essential in securing market share and onward sales

Fabrinet UK’s support at NPI engaged all of those disciplines and allowed the client to make the necessary changes during its lifecycle; this allowed a successful product launch on time and within budget